“Becoming Lucid”
I still cannot grasp the idea of lucid dreaming. To my understanding and definition, it is the act of becoming aware that you are dreaming, and able to take control of your dream. Well, this works slightly different for me, and maybe it is not in fact lucid dreaming at all… It seems like a gray area… As far as realizing you are dreaming, and being in control of your actions, this happens naturally at random times for me. It has never been uncommon, and I always believed it was just normal. This happens for me several times a month. However, typically I am not able to influence my dreams by any major factors. The most notable thing about my dreams that when I become aware, I have complete freedom of movement… It takes some effort, but I can fly, run, jump, and even pass through solid objects. It feels very real though, as I cannot just “simply do these things”. They take concentration. One thing that I have noticed though, is that when I become lucid, I can cause “immaterial” things to interact with my dream. An example, is that say I wish to turn into a bird. I “turn into a bird”, and to my surroundings, and onlookers, I am now a bird, flying around. Yet to me, I am nothing more than myself as I had originally manifested in the dream. Flapping my arms like a lunatic while flying around. I was curious about this, as I haven’t really explored it, if anyone else has that happen. Another similar example, is changing into a dragon, and breathing fire at objects or people. I do not actually change appearance, and I am not actually breathing fire, but the things around me are effected by invisible fire. It is almost like I am tricking my mind into thinking that things are happening, when they aren’t… Doesn’t that just sound reverse?
Well first of, if you are aware you are dreaming whilst you are asleep, you are lucid dreaming. That’s it, control is not mandatory, its just often something people seek, when they are aware of the fact they are dreaming.
Secondly, its possible that you are having some issues or some doubts about your ability to transform. The way this illustrates itself for you is that within the dream, you get the effects, but not the actual transformation. I have had a somewhat similar issue, I tried to transform into a dragon and the dream became unstable. I now believe this is because I expected it to on some level. When I thought about it rationally outside of the dream, I have had the most abstract and far-flung dreams, been demon things, flown, been female, dreamed about people transforming into magnets and such, the only thing holding me from transforming when lucid, was my doubt. Dreams react very strongly to our expectations.
Instability due to doubt… How would you change something like that? That seems a little sensitive to me. It does answer the question as to why there are times where people inside my dreams partially become intangible, and the dream as a whole seems to lose color, become hazy, and seem to be fading away. In my dreams, people seem to have a consciousness of their own, until this happens. It’s like everything just phases out, and everyone becomes an empty shell. I can remember the dreams very clearly, but it becomes as if looking through a foggy window. Is this the instability of the dream? Or something else?
What it’s possible to do in lucid dreams tends to get very grossly exaggerated on Internet message boards. Thus the people who are new to it tend to get very badly misled.
Anyway, what is it that you want to do?
I can’t seem to find a way to answer that question in a simple form. I can answer the question in a few words, but out of context, it could easily be misunderstood, or just plain make no sense at all.
That’s so true! People think it’s really easy to control dreams, but it’s not. It takes time, effort, and practice. It’s not easy at all.
Anyways, I think that your brain is thinking “Oh, well since it’s not pysically possible to change into a bird it’s impossible. End of story.” After some practice you’ll get it. It’s not something that comes right away.
Good luck 
On top of all your replies, I would really recommend reading tosxyChor’s Dream Control Training Course. He gives soem very good tips on getting over doubt as well as easier ways to make things happen other than to just try “willing” them to.
Also, for tranformation Wyvern has a good article in The BIG Transformation topic. This will really help when it comes to figuring out how to alter appearance rather than just perceptions. Best of luck to you!
I would be happy to read these things, as I know they would provide alot of insight and answer alot of my questions. However… there are curtain things and questions that I have that I can assure you, these guides cannot give me the answers to. The reason i wish to avoid these things, is that I do not want to be able to control my dreams. There is a reason for this… I don’t know if reading about it will effect me in some way or not… I wish to have control only over myself, and I do not want to risk having this happen at the wrong time… I would be more than happy to explore these guides aslong as they meet curtain criteria. Perhaps that tidbit will help you help me a little better… (that is assuming you wish to do so.)
I speak this without taking into account that you were speaking of transformation. Personlly, I think that transformation is silly, and unimportant to me. Which now that I think about it, may be the reason it doesn’t work. 
What I do in lucid dreams is to seek knowledge. If you don’t want to do that you can have fun flying around or cutting capers.
… OK now I am confused. Forgive me, but a lot of your answers have been very cryptic. I do want to help, but at this point I’m not entirely sure what you want help with. Your first post mentions a lack of control and an inability to transform, yet you do not want to correct either of these (not that there is anything wrong with that, its just a tad confusing). If you don’t want to change how your LD’s are up to this point, then what specifically are you asking for?
I think I get it:
You want to be able to Break your limits (like fly, shapeshift, etc…), but you want to do that WITHOUT affecting the Dream Enviroment, without turning the rest of the Dream World into an Empty Shell like simple puppets…
I don’t know if happens with everyone, but at least for me, when I become Lucid, is like “the movie stops”, everything vanishes and then I start to do whatever I want; So, after I gain control over my dream, I sacrifice the original Dream itself, turning it into a “blank page”.
I think Loah may have the same kind of experience, and she’s trying to gain control only over herself like: “Hey! I’m dreaming, but you all Dream Characters keep your way as everything was 1sec ago // Ok, I’m dreaming and from now on I’ll make whatever I want BUT this dream will remain in it’s original course and nothing will fade away!”
IF I’m right, the only thing I see you can try is after you become Lucid and gain control, try to command your dream to “resume” from the point it stopped. Literaly, say out loud: “Resume Everything!”.
Don’t know if it’ll work, but I think it’s worth a shot…
^^ This. And I am sorry for being confusing, that will probably happen a lot.
Ah, I see now 
Sorry for getting so confused there, sometimes I have a hard time reading between the lines. I know one thing that helped me keep the dream going was learning to speak to DC’s or actively trying to finish whatever activity I was doing. After a while they stuck around unlike they had in the past, and now my LD’s really are continuations of the ND before them.
Does that help at all or am I still lost 
?
At first I was going to confirm that I do interact with DC’s, but you said “speak” to them. Now that I think about it, I don’t really speak to anyone in LD. I think you just assigned my first goal.
hm, i actually enjoyed reading this. i have tried to embrace how this illusion of “you being yourself inside of your own mind” could be coaxed into a healthy resolve. still i am not experienced enough haha. to clarify i don’t just mean your own consumption and decay leaves evidence, but so do others. more authenticity in crossroad events, and will our mind allow us too bend with new paths so freely? im sure this is what we all look for as the golden egg, but its just so alluring and tangible when you bring it up. good post Loah.
…staring at your avatar is making me alittle tired, i think im going to lay down and later figure how this post is neither here nor there, or just doesnt make sense like most of my posts. peace